Beef Enchiladas

My mom used to make these Enchiladas when I was growing up. I was not an easy kid to cook for since I hate cheese and most other dairy products, so finding things I would eat is tough. Usually she would make something that she could easily leave a spot without cheese for me, but add cheese for the rest of my family, who all love cheese (ick!)

But I always loved these enchiladas, and they are pretty easy to make, not very much work at all. I make them pretty often because Jeremy loves them. It was one of the first meals I made for him once we were married. 

Beef Enchiladas

1 lb ground beef

1 small can green chiles

1 can refried beans

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp cumin

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

 5-7 tortillas

1 can green or red enchilada sauce

Cook the Ground beef  with garlic powder, salt and pepper, and cumin, until no longer in pink. Add green chiles, saute about 1 minute. Add refried beans, mix until beans are pliable and all mixed through. 

While that is cooking, get a 9X13 pan, spray with cooking spray, and add a tiny bit of enchilada sauce to the bottom of the pan, and move pan around so the sauce spreads. 

Get your tortillas and add the beef mixture to the tortilla, so it spreads across the tortilla in a line, you can add more or less depending on how big you want your enchiladas. I used mine to make 5 because I only had 5 tortillas, but I usually use six. 

Now line your enchiladas along the bottom of the pan. 

Add more enchilada sauce and cover the tortillas. 

Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes, cover in cheese, bake another 10 minutes or until tortillas are a little crispy on the edges. 

Serve! 

Beef, green chiles and beans mixed together

Sin in a Bowl

{This picture is from Finding Joy in My Kitchen, My layers didn't look as neat as theirs and I want to show you all the goodness that is in it, the other two pictures are mine though.}

So my momma made this dessert for Easter, and I think everyone had about five bowls of it. It was amazing! At first I wasn't going to eat it, cause I just thought it was pudding, whipped cream, and strawberries, and I thought, boring. But then I realized there were brownies in there and I had to try it, and I am so glad I did. It was super yummy! It was the hit of our Easter dinner. So I had to make it. I made it the other night for my sister in laws that were visiting us, and it was a hit again. But it didn't taste as good as my mommas. I skipped the step that the recipe suggests letting it sit for 8 hours, and the brownies didn't soak up all the pudding goodness. But the next day it was way more delicious after it sat for a while. So I suggest making this the night before or something. It is called 'Sin in a bowl' and it really does live up to its name! 

You can find the recipe for it over at Finding Joy in My Kitchen. 

And in case you are wondering. Usually when I find a recipe for something on a blog, I don't add the recipe on my blog, because I find it more polite to direct you to the original blog and if I gave you the recipe, there would be no reason for you to visit their blog, I know when I create something, I would like someone to do the same for me. 

Simple Elastic Waist Skirt

So if you look at my sewing pinterest board, you are lead to believe I am an amazing sew-er (what the, how do you write that word without spelling sewer?) I have pinned all these cute DIY baby dresses, reversible hand bags, and crazy cute maxi dresses. And I guess looking at that board all the time and pinning advanced sewing tutorials lead me to believe I am a sewing wiz! So I started on this baby ruffle skirt that had many layers of ruffles with tulle underneath and everything. But halfway through this adventure I realized I suck at sewing. My greatest sewing accomplishment was making some My Little Pony pajamas for myself in Clothing 1 in high school. And those only worked out because I had my friends who were sitting by me tell me in detail everything I had to do, and fix my machine when I tangled it all up. Why in the world did I choose this crazy ruffle skirt as a beginning sewing project? Well I persevered and finished that dang skirt and the end result was some pretty shoddy stitch work, and a skirt that barely fit A-Cakes (thanks to me not measuring properly). She wore it once, and then the whole thing fell apart in the wash, I guess I didn't sew close enough to the raw edges so it totally frayed and got all stringy and I had to throw it away! The thing took me hours and hours and hours and now its sitting in my trash can. 

Well it was such a difficult project and I tangled up my machine so many times (with no friends to fix it for me, just tutorials on youtube) that I had to take a few weeks break from sewing. But I wasn't going to give up, so I went back to my advanced pinterest board and looked for SIMPLE, and BEGINNER sewing projects. And I found this elastic waisted skirt that was guaranteed to be easy and great for beginners. 

And it totally was. I whipped this baby up in an hour and a half, maybe a bit less. I measured correctly this time and tried it on A-Cakes and it fit! And I learned my lesson with sewing the raw edges so no fraying. 

So really, I am telling you, ANYONE can make this skirt! 

{I love my cute little model}

I didn't do a tutorial, I don't feel like I am an experienced enough sew-er to give you instructions, but you can find the amazing tutorial that I used over at Freshly Picked. It is great and gives you wonderful instructions on how long to cut your fabric and everything. 

I am loving this skirt. A-Cakes wore it today and I thought it was adorable. And so light and cute for summer! I think I am going to make a few more for her in different prints and probably one for me too since they were so easy. 

I bought the fabric on sale at Wal-Mart for $1.50 a yard and I used about 1/3 of the yard, if that. I already had the elastic, but if you don't its like $1.00 at Wal-Mart. 

So this skirt cost me $1.50!!! 

Chicken & Beef Fajitas

So... How ya liking the new look? I have to change every few months, I get bored of the same style.


I have been craving fajitas the last couple months. Its weird cause I never really loved them that much. But now I want to eat them every night! 

In March when I went to New Mexico, my mom's friend made these fajitas and that is what got me hooked, they were really good. I didn't have the recipe, so I made up my own. But my mom finally got the recipe from her. So I mixed the new recipe with the one I invented and Bam! Wonderful. 

So when I make up my own recipes, I don't really measure anything. I just keep adding stuff until I like how it tastes. That is what I did with this fajita recipe. So I am estimating here, but I would tweek it to your liking. Its an easy meal, and simple to make your own.

Chicken & Beef Fajitas

1 lb chicken breasts, cubed. 

1/2 lb thin beef steak, sliced thin. 

1 Green Pepper, sliced

1/2 onion, sliced 

4 to 6 tortillas 

1 pack McCormick Fajita Seasoning

1/2 C. Water

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

1 Tbsp Lime Juice

1/4 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp garlic powder

red pepper flakes (add to your level of spiciness) 

1 Tbsp olive oil ( margarine or veggie oil works too)

In large pan, heat chicken, beef, green peppers and onions in olive oil. Add cumin, pepper, chili powder, salt and garlic powder, stir. Cook until chicken is almost cooked through, stirring often.. Add water. Continue cooking on about med (okay whatever 7 is on your stove top, cook it on that) until water reduces down a bit, then add McCormick seasoning packet and mix it all up. Add lime juice, vinegar and red pepper flakes, stir. Continue cooking until water is reduced down pretty low and has made a kind of thin-ish sauce. 

You're done! Enjoy.

NOTE: I did not have a McCormick Seasoning packet and that is what my mom's friend said she used. I did however have the McCormick Fajita Seasoning that comes in the spice container, so I used that. I used about 1 1/2 Tbsp of that, maybe a bit more...

I also recommend using the uncooked tortillas you can get at your grocery store in the refrigerator section. I used to buy the already made, ready to serve kind, but the uncooked kind is soo SOOO SOO much better. I will never go back. They are like a dollar or so more, but so worth it, and they only take like a minute to cook. The other kind seriously would like break in half whenever I would fold it over for a burrito or something, but these kind don't. 

I love this rice, its Zatarans Black Beans and Rice. It went great with the fajitas.

** Update**

I love to puree vegetables and put them in dinners. This is a great one to do that with. I love summer Squash added to this recipe.